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About Me

I am a Ph.D. student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. I study the History of Biblical Interpretation, which includes Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. My interests are religion, politics, TV, movies, and reading.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Michele Bachmann's Core of Conviction 2

In my latest reading of Michele Bachmann's Core of Conviction: My Story,
Bachmann covered a lot of ground. She talked about how her family when
she was young became impoverished after her dad and mom divorced (and
yet she notes that her mom chose not to receive welfare), how she was
not particularly popular with the guys in her high school years and did
not know how to flirt (which surprised me because I stereotyped her as a
Beauty Queen type), how she became a Christian when she was in high
school, how she lived for a time on a Kibbutz in Israel and learned the
value of having a strong national defense (as Israel was threatened by
foreign enemies), how she met her husband Marcus at work and was friends
with him for a while before they took their relationship to a romantic
level, how she and Marcus worked with pro-life causes and sought to help
unwed mothers, and how they campaigned for Jimmy Carter in a time when
the Democratic Party was more open to the pro-life cause than was the
Republican Party.

On page 46, Bachmann discusses her conversion to Christ and how that filled a void within her:

"Now
I felt real confidence. Profound confidence. Finally I felt armored
and equipped, ready to confront the world and its many challenges. I
knew that I belonged to God and that He loved me, and so I no longer had
to depend on the approval of others. My cheerful childhood outlook had
been damaged by the move away from Iowa, then more damaged by my
parents' divorce. And while I kept plugging away through my early teen
years, learning and working, I had felt a gnawing insecurity----an
insecurity that is common, I realize, among children of broken homes and
blended families. Maybe that's why I had joined every club, thrown
myself into every activity. Now, looking back on my life before Christ,
I realized that I had been searching for something and not finding it.
I had sought approval from teachers and classmates, and while they were
almost always nice, they could never fill the real void in my life.
What I needed was a close personal relationship with the Lord Jesus."

I
can identify with what Michele Bachmann says about having a void in her
life and feeling insecure. Even people who live with others and are
continually around people have testified that they still feel a deep
sense of loneliness. Bachmann found peace in Jesus, rather than in her
accomplishments and approval by others. But why are there people who
become Christians and yet still feel that there is a void in their
lives? I think of Whitney Houston. Is it because we need to remind
ourselves continually that we are loved by God----that we need to root
our identity in God's love rather than approval by others and
accomplishments, not just at a moment of conversion, but every single
day?